Pantry project

My First New House Project!

I was worried that when we bought our house, that there wouldn’t be any projects to undertake. But we hadn’t even been here a month and I was already working on my first project.

If you read my post about the new house here, you will see that one of the things we didn’t get that was on my wish list was a PANTRY. If I had gotten my way, I would have the huge walk-in pantry of my dreams. But house purchasing always requires compromises, and so, now I am left to fend for my own pantry 😉

Choices, Choices…

One of the factors in choosing a cupboard solution was that I wanted some display space, in addition to pantry space. So after much thought and some on line sleuthing I went with IKEA’s Billy/Oxberg combination. Which gives me both of those things. The Billy bookcases are 11” deep, which is deep enough for both a stack of dinner plates, and a box of cereal. My plan is to use the upper section with the glass doors for display of my favourite dishes and glasses. and the bottom section will be my much needed and beloved pantry. There is a LOT of room in there for canned goods, dry goods and maybe even some small appliances.

I have to give credit where credit is due, it was Greg that came up with the plan for where this should go. I was saying that we didn’t have as much cupboard space as we did in the previous place. Although the layout of the kitchen is very similar, we have a window here, where we had about 3 additional cupboards in the condo. He pointed to the blank wall across from the kitchen and said “We could put cupboards over there” To which I replied “You are brilliant”

Shopping from Afar

The hardest part of this project for me is that I had to order from IKEA and wait for delivery. Because the closest store to us, is a ferry ride away, it’s more economical to order and wait for delivery. The waiting kills me!!

I got my IKEA order just after Christmas. And I could barely fit it all in my truck. Here it is in my less than tidy garage… Stay tuned for a garage update coming soon!

I am one of those people that really LOVES putting together IKEA furniture. Although, I think I may be in the minority here. At least they don’t give you extra pieces, like the lego advent calendars!! The only piece that slowed me down a bit is that my baseboards are taller than the cutout in the back of the cabinet. So, I had to saw the cabinet. Happily this meant I got to use my new Ryobi circular saw that I got for Christmas!! Weeee. Unfortunately, I am not the most experienced carpenter, and my cuts were not perfect. Happily most of these things can be remedied with CAULKING.

It’s all about the similarities

I am very fortunate that the Billy bookcases are quite similar to my existing kitchen cabinetry, as below:

And here is the Billy/Oxberg combo:

We used the same handles to help make them look like they belonged. I even let Greg assist, which I don’t always do, since I can be a bit of a control freak about my projects, but he does drill straighter than I do, and he is amazing at caulking, since he’s a plumber and does this every day.

Man, it almost looks as if he knows what he’s doing!

Next Steps

I am also planning on mimicking the trim that is on the top of the kitchen cabinets. It shouldn’t be too difficult, it’s basically a piece of melamine cut at a 45 degree angle, mounted on top of another piece of melamine, in an upside down “L” like this:

Trim on top of my existing cabinets. This should be pretty easy to mimic

I intend to install lighting in the cabinets, with either strip lighting or puck lights. I can install the lights in the cabinets, but will need to bring in an electrician to do the wiring as there is no outlet on the wall. So this piece will have to wait for a bit.

Now that my new pantry cabinet is complete, I can start organizing all of my food supplies. I’m super excited about this, but will save that piece for another post.

So here is my finished pantry cabinet. I just love it. It was a great solution to my storage needs, and even gave me some additional display space.

Check back in later to see how I do with the lighting and organizing.

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